In the last year, as our work with user-centered design has evolved and begun to influence the product development process, there have arisen new questions such as, “Is there another leg to the stool?”, “Should there be a UCD (user-centered design) rep on every project team?” and “If the customer is really this important shouldn’t they get their own leg to the stool?”
I so appreciate these questions because 1) I think they are questions that many people may have wondered about and 2) because they offer the opportunity to articulate further, the role of UCD in project teams and within the product development process. While there could be someone representing the voice of the customer or even a representative customer on each team, what I would like to emphasize in this moment is that we don’t want to delegate the thought and reality of the customer to only one person on the team. If the user is a separate leg of the stool, then the customer is ANOTHER PIECE to consider, rather than the piece around which the content, design and marketing and selling is created.
The “user” or the “customer” is not meant to be its own leg of the stool, but rather integrated into the work of every function and every leg already present on the stool. Rather than being another leg, it is really the lens through which each function should be carrying out its work. It is important that the work of each function be so imbued with a sense of the customer that what team members see, hear and create is done so from this unique understanding of the customer’s needs.
As I mentioned at the end of last week’s post, when each function understands the path the customers are trying to take through the product, we can be sure to:
- develop and structure the content to reflect that path
- design the interior to visually convey that path
- market and sell the points on that path that our products address.
When the customer is the lens through which each of these functions carry out their work, the end product and goal will align with a certain and clear path for the customer’s interaction with the product.
While there is often someone assisting project teams currently in building this customer lens, it is the goal and responsibility of every project team member to ensure that the team’s customer lens is clear. When the lens gets cloudy, from whatever perspective (whether content, design or marketing), we need to help one another clear the lens and return to the question, “What do we know about the customer and their tasks and how they need to interact with this product?”
Then, we bring our experience and our own expertise to bear on the project to facilitate the creation of a path (a way for them to interact with the product) that is clear, accessible, and simple so that, in the end, our customers can complete their tasks efficiently, effectively and satisfactorily. Image credit
"Brad Collett, 2012
Used under license from Shutterstock.com"
Heather's lens analogy makes a lot of sense as to how the UCD fits into "the 3 legs process" that we use at SMP. Another angle would be to consider UCD and our customer input/view as the seat of the stool. The one thing that each of the legs “plugs into” in order to make it whole and functional. If all the legs aren't "plugged in" to the seat the customer and/or product that tries to sit on that stool falls down!
ReplyDeleteCathy, you just solved the problem I wasn't able to figure out, i.e. where does the seat fit in. What you explain above really makes the 3-legs of the stool analogy much richer. Thanks so much for adding this.
DeleteI find it fascinating that we are operating some of our project team meetings more like a user test – with tasks the team members need to do – in order to help us make good, customer-centric decisions. Having teams do a task made the process more objective than subjective with checking our internal confidence about what we know a project needs to do in the marketplace. Interesting how UCD is playing out in this unique way internally.
ReplyDeleteCaren, this is really intriguing and a great observation. I've even had someone utilize a user-centered strategy on me. Someone from IT was helping me and asking me what "group" I should be associated with in a computer folder structure. Because I didn't know how the groupings were decided, I didn't know how to respond, so she said, "Ok, let's try it the UCD way: what folders in here do you need to get into and why?" From there she assigned me to the appropriate group. It was quite surprising to see how quickly she went to trying to address the task that I as the user was trying to complete.
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